3:20PM, Oct 12, 2009
A performance of psychotic showmanship and menace, Ledger's Oscar-winning turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight will remain the defining moment for this verstaile, intelligent actor.
Since January 22nd 2008, friends, family and fans have mourned for the loss of Ledger the man, and the tragedy of his daughter who will grow up not knowing her father.
Over a year after his death and with only one more new Ledger film to come, Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus in June, perhaps we are just beginning to realise just what an enormous talent cinema has lost.
The actor made his feature film debut with a small role in rape-drama Blackrock in 1997, but had impressed a year earlier on the small screen playing a gay cyclist in the series Sweat.
But, 1999 was Ledger’s breakout year with impressive movies from both America and his native Australia.
The Australian Two Hands was a hungry, adrenalised crime thriller with Ledger in hot water with gangster Bryan Brown, and in deep with love interest Rose Byrne.
The same year 10 Things I Hate About You achieved the impossible - a high-school updating of a classic text (here The Turn of the Screw) that was actually good. More than good, it was hip, funny, infectiously sweet-natured, and Ledger and Julia Stiles were an attractive couple worth rooting for.
Although cast immediately in high profile roles, when looking at his early American films post 10 Things…there is still the impression Ledger was paying his dues.
He was fellow-countryman Mel Gibson’s doomed son (no-one upstages Mel come the final act) in The Patriot, and was winningly put-upon by the rest of the cast in serf-becomes-warrior comedy A Knight’s Tale.
But, Heath Ledger's range far exceeded his idol looks and his talent needed stronger outlets. Not for nothing did Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee dub him “a new Brando”.
A supporting role, again playing a doomed son, in 2001’s Monster’s Ball seems closer to the roles Ledger preferred.
Like everyone else he was overwhelmed by the unfocussed adaptation of The Four Feathers in 2002, but the film is worth seeing for the amazing shot when he, without aid of stuntman or wires, leaps onto a galloping horse.
After the troubled Four Feathers, Ledger returned to Australia for a reunion with Two Hands director Gregor Jordan on the romanticised 2003 biopic Ned Kelly.
An enjoyable missed opportunity, Ledger overcame the burden of an Irish accent, although the film’s most memorable performance came from a pre-Pirates fame Orlando Bloom as Kelly’s right-hand man.
The film also cast Ledger with then real-life partner Naomi Watts, with whom he had a two-year on/off relationship.
A soft-spot for reunions would lead Ledger and the director and cast of A Knight’s Tale into his worst film, The Order. More aptly described by its trashy alternate title The Sin Eater, it’s a sub-Exorcist rip-off that needs no futher attention.
Ledger had four films released in 2005. Casanova was a certificate 12 misstep, The Brothers Grimm a Terry Gilliam film with flashes of magic compromised by hands-on producer Harvey Weinstein, Lords of Dogtown an enjoyable but redundant re-telling of the skateboard documentary Dogtown and Z Boys, and Brokeback Mountain.
Brokeback Mountain is Ledger’s best performance. Even better than The Joker or his criminally overlooked portrayal of a self-destructive junkie artist in the Australian film Candy a year later.
Saying he would have flown to Taiwan if necessary to meet Ang Lee and audition for the role, the actor knew how perfect he would be for the role. As the confused, inarticulate, destructive shepherd (not cowboy) who discovers his life’s love is another man, Ledger is electrifying and heartbreaking. Jake Gyllenhall’s contribution is often overlooked, but this is Heath's show.
The film’s closing scene, loaded with loss, regret and resigned acceptance, is emotionally shattering and totally rewarding.
Ledger lost out on the Best Actor Oscar to Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote. He seemed happy that Hoffman’s similarly impressive turn won..
But, what makes Ledger truly likeable is his look of undisguised unhappiness that the simplistic Crash picked up 2006’s Best Film Oscar over Brokeback.
Dig out Candy for the daring, mature and sensitive actor Ledger was becoming, and also Todd Haynes love-it-or-loathe-it Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There, in which he played the embittered, prickly counterculture Dylan persona (with Dark Knight co-star Christian Bale the earlier folk-hero Bob).
And then there’s The Dark Knight: 2008’s best film and Ledger’s Oscar winning turn the year’s key performance. The definitive portrayal of Batman’s nemesis, the final shot of the Joker, left suspended in mid-air, seems somehow appropriate for the talent cut-off so abruptly.
Dime-store psychologists will pore over Ledger’s filmography, citing that the darkness in some of his characters reflected similar troubles in his real life. Indeed, hack journalist couldn’t wait to make connections between the frightening looking Joker and Heath Ledger’s early demise.
They will be forgotten. Ledger won’t.
Rob Daniel
